How do I point my domain at Civo?

Change the nameservers at your registrar to ns0.civo.com and ns1.civo.com, then create the domain inside Civo so there is a zone to answer for it. Civo hosts DNS but does not register domains, so the domain itself stays where you bought it. Both halves are needed: delegation without a zone returns nothing, and a zone without delegation is never asked.

Which DNS record types can I edit in CivoCloudManager?

The type picker offers A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV and NS. A priority field appears for MX and SRV only, and TTL is prefilled with 600, the default Civo documents. Civo's own CLI documentation lists A, CNAME, TXT, SRV and MX, so check the response after writing your first AAAA or NS record.

Can I edit Civo DNS without using the browser?

Yes. The Civo CLI does it from a terminal, and CivoCloudManager does it from a native macOS window using the same Civo REST API v2. In the app, domains expand in place to show their records, Edit opens a sheet prefilled with the current values, and deleting requires typing the record label to confirm.

Does CivoCloudManager replace external-dns?

No. external-dns is a Kubernetes controller with a built-in Civo provider that creates and removes records automatically as Services and Ingresses change. CivoCloudManager has no cluster-side component and creates nothing on its own. Run both against the same domain: the controller owns the names it manages, you own the rest.

What is reverse DNS for, and where do I set it on Civo?

Reverse DNS maps an instance IP back to a hostname, and mail receivers routinely check it before accepting a message. On Civo it is a property of the instance rather than an entry in your zone, so in CivoCloudManager you set it in the instance detail view: click the Reverse DNS row, type the hostname, save.

Civo DNS and domains, edited from a Mac window.

Point a domain at Civo's nameservers, then keep the zone in a native app instead of a browser tab.

Civo hosts DNS for domains you register elsewhere. The setup is short: move the nameservers at your registrar, create the domain inside Civo, add the records. The maintenance afterwards is where the browser starts to hurt, because the moment that matters is usually a certificate challenge at an awkward hour and you are three clicks deep in a web dashboard trying to paste a TXT value without a typo. CivoCloudManager keeps the same zone on the same Civo REST API v2, in a window that is already open.

Pointing a domain at Civo, start to finish

01

Register the domain somewhere else

Civo does not sell domain registration. Its own documentation is explicit about it: the DNS service is purely for hosting the zone. The domain stays with whichever registrar you bought it from, and only the nameserver delegation moves.
02

Set the nameservers to ns0.civo.com and ns1.civo.com

In your registrar's control panel, replace the current nameservers with ns0.civo.com and ns1.civo.com. Those two hostnames are the ones Civo documents. How fast the change takes effect is decided by the old delegation's TTL and by your registrar, not by Civo, so expect a wait before anything you add below is visible to the outside world.
03

Create the domain in Civo so the zone exists

Delegating the nameservers does nothing until Civo has a zone to answer for. In CivoCloudManager that is the Domains view: the plus button in the toolbar creates the domain. The app posts it to the /dns endpoint of Civo's REST API v2. Domains are account wide, not tied to one region, so the region you picked during onboarding does not fence off a zone.
04

Add the records

Expand a domain in the list and its records appear underneath it, each one showing type, name, value and TTL. Add Record opens an editor with a type picker, a name field (www, mail or @ for the apex), a value field, a TTL that starts at 600, and a priority field that appears only when you pick MX or SRV.
05

Verify against the API, not just against your resolver

Reload the domain in the app to confirm Civo stored what you sent. If a lookup still fails afterwards, the cause is usually delegation or caching rather than a bad record. The app's API Health view tells you in one screen whether Civo's DNS endpoint is answering at all, which separates a Civo problem from a resolver problem before you start guessing.

The record types the app writes

The type picker offers A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV and NS. Priority is only asked for on MX and SRV, because those are the two types that carry one. TTL is prefilled with 600, which is the default Civo itself documents. Civo's own CLI documentation names A, CNAME, TXT, SRV and MX, so if you write an AAAA or an NS record, read the response the app shows you back rather than assuming it landed. Deleting a record is deliberately slow: the confirmation sheet makes you type the record label exactly as shown before the delete button becomes active.

Why a native editor wins during a certificate challenge

An ACME DNS-01 challenge gives you a long random string and a short window. In the app the domain expands in place, the existing records stay visible while you work, and choosing Edit on a record opens a sheet already filled with its current type, name, value and TTL, so correcting a TXT value is select, paste, save. Nothing navigates away, nothing reloads, and the record you are comparing against is still on screen. A web form that resets the page after every save costs you the one thing you do not have at that moment, which is attention.

Reverse DNS lives on the instance, not in the zone

Reverse DNS is a real Civo feature with thin documentation, and it is not part of the DNS zone at all. It is a property of the instance, so you set it in the instance detail view: the Reverse DNS row shows either the current hostname or Not set, and clicking it turns the row into a text field. Saving writes the reverse_dns field on the instance and the change is recorded in the app's local activity log with a timestamp. This matters most for anything sending mail, since receiving servers commonly check that an IP resolves back to a plausible hostname.

What this is not: it does not replace external-dns

external-dns is a Kubernetes controller with a built-in Civo provider that authenticates with a CIVO_TOKEN and creates records automatically from Services and Ingresses. CivoCloudManager does none of that. It has no cluster-side component, it reacts to nothing, and it will never create a record because a Service appeared. If your records should follow your workloads, run external-dns and keep running it. The two coexist on the same domain without conflict as long as you leave the names external-dns manages alone: use the app for the records a human owns, such as the apex, mail, verification strings and delegations, and let the controller own the rest.

When records are not propagating, rule out the API first

The DNS endpoint is one of sixteen Civo REST endpoints the app health-checks from the Account section. Each one is called in turn with a ten second timeout, and you get the HTTP status code plus the round trip in milliseconds, green under 200 ms, amber under 500 ms, red above that. The header summarises the run as All Systems Operational or as a count of unavailable endpoints. It is a small thing that saves a specific kind of wasted hour: when a record you just wrote is not showing up, you can see whether Civo accepted the write at all before you start flushing caches and blaming your resolver.

Where the credentials sit

One Civo API key drives all of this and it is stored in the macOS Keychain, with Touch ID required before the app will reveal it. There is no publisher server between the Mac and Civo, and no telemetry. The app is sandboxed with four entitlements, it requires macOS 15 or newer on Apple silicon or Intel, and the source is available at github.com/marcelrgberger/civo-cloud-manager if you would rather read the request code than trust a description of it.

Three ways to change a Civo record

These are not competitors so much as different jobs. The honest split is that one of them is for automation and two of them are for people.

Capability	Civo dashboard (browser)	external-dns	CivoCloudManager
Edit a single record by hand	Yes	Not its purpose	Yes, in a prefilled editor
Create records automatically from Kubernetes Services and Ingresses	No	Yes, this is the point of it	No, and it never will
Needs a running Kubernetes cluster	No	Yes	No
Reverse DNS on an instance	Yes	No	Yes, inline on the instance
Where the API key lives	Browser session	Kubernetes Secret in the cluster	macOS Keychain, Touch ID to reveal
Health of the Civo API endpoints	No	No	Sixteen endpoints with status and latency

Civo DNS questions, answered

How do I point my domain at Civo?: Change the nameservers at your registrar to ns0.civo.com and ns1.civo.com, then create the domain inside Civo so there is a zone to answer for it. Civo hosts DNS but does not register domains, so the domain itself stays where you bought it. Both halves are needed: delegation without a zone returns nothing, and a zone without delegation is never asked.
Which DNS record types can I edit in CivoCloudManager?: The type picker offers A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV and NS. A priority field appears for MX and SRV only, and TTL is prefilled with 600, the default Civo documents. Civo's own CLI documentation lists A, CNAME, TXT, SRV and MX, so check the response after writing your first AAAA or NS record.
Can I edit Civo DNS without using the browser?: Yes. The Civo CLI does it from a terminal, and CivoCloudManager does it from a native macOS window using the same Civo REST API v2. In the app, domains expand in place to show their records, Edit opens a sheet prefilled with the current values, and deleting requires typing the record label to confirm.
Does CivoCloudManager replace external-dns?: No. external-dns is a Kubernetes controller with a built-in Civo provider that creates and removes records automatically as Services and Ingresses change. CivoCloudManager has no cluster-side component and creates nothing on its own. Run both against the same domain: the controller owns the names it manages, you own the rest.
What is reverse DNS for, and where do I set it on Civo?: Reverse DNS maps an instance IP back to a hostname, and mail receivers routinely check it before accepting a message. On Civo it is a property of the instance rather than an entry in your zone, so in CivoCloudManager you set it in the instance detail view: click the Reverse DNS row, type the hostname, save.

Guides

Step by step, and honest comparisons.

Deep dives

Targeted reads for each Civo product.

Every Civo surface CivoCloudManager touches has its own page with the specifics, the trade-offs, and the architecture details. Pick the one closest to what you do today.

Keep the zone where your hands already are.

CivoCloudManager is a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, with seven days of full access from first launch and a menu bar firewall tier that stays free after that.

Download on the Mac App Store

Requires macOS 15 (Sequoia) or newer.

Back to the CivoCloudManager overview